Government Must Be Wary Of Killing Off The Overseas Student Goose

Most people in Britain probably dont appreciate that higher education is now one of the countrys largest export industries

. Ok, so its not like shipping out cars or aircraft engines but it is still a very valuable invisible export earning billions in vital foreign currency. In fact, no less than 1 in 10 of all foreign students who study outside their own countries come to UK universities and other further education establishments.

These students spend around 8 billion a year in tuition fees and this figure is reckoned to rise to some 17 billion by 2025. This huge contribution also means that fees charged to UK nationals are lower than might otherwise be the case. On top of this annual spend; one has to factor in all the money spent by these overseas students on food, accommodation and clothing etc while they are here.

To cultivate this huge business, British universities have started to employ professional marketing managers and to use specialist education marketing agencies who know how to brand individual establishments and promote them in foreign countries using, inter alia, all the latest digital techniques.

Considering all the effort and expense that goes into attracting overseas students, it comes as no surprise that the universities are very sensitive about the governments current crackdown on people using student visas to gain entry into the UK via the back door.

Historically, overseas students have been classified as immigrants if they are staying for over 6 months which, in the majority of cases, they are.

Therefore, this group has been at the forefront of the governments effort to rein in total immigration figures. The problem has been the apparent proliferation of bogus colleges which were set up purely to act as a conduit for illegal immigration.

The universities have been quick to point out to the Immigration Minister, Damien Green, that he shouldnt risk throwing the lucrative overseas student baby out with the bogus college bathwater. He has responded by insisting that there will be no restriction on genuine foreign students coming over for bona fide higher education.

Where the situation gets a bit murky is that these students represent the biggest constituent of total new immigrants and around a fifth of them seem to stay indefinitely. They go on to postgraduate studies or get married to a British partner or, in a great many cases, simply get assimilated into the workforce.

The government will clearly have to decide whether this leakage is a price worth paying when one considers the value of the whole legitimate overseas student industry to the UK economy.

by: Brendan Wilde

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